"Steve Maddison" wrote in message
...
Tim Auton wrote:
"Bill Able" wrote:


A US friend of mine just sold a telescope to a Spanish buyer. He
is dumbfounded by the huge taxes that the Spanish buyer will have
to pay to customs before receiving the scope. What's going on
here- why are foreign customs adding so much tax to shipments like
this?


Is it second hand? IIRC you don't pay import duty or VAT (sales tax)
on second-hand stuff.
That is not true I'm afraid.
You don't have to pay, if you can show the duty has already _been_ paid on
the original purchase, or this can be assumed. However the duty and VAT,
becomes due on the first entry to the EU. Hence a second-hand sale from
the US, does incur duty and VAT. They were so strict about this at one
time, that it was advised that people taking things like cameras, and
laptops abroad, and then bringing them back into the EU, should take a
copy of the original sales invoice from inside the EU, or get a
certificate from Custom's on the way out, to avoid paying again when they
came back in!...
This has relaxed somewhat, but I'm afraid that technically goods are still
liable.
There was a case a little while ago, where an American made light
aircraft, on the UK register, flew to France, and the French customs,
proceeded to charge duty, and VAT, on the whole aircraft value, because
the owner did not have the paperwork to prove that the taxes had been paid
when the aircraft was bought into the EU...

That's what I thought too... it'd be a good thing to know, if anyone can
verify this. I may have to arrange for a couple of "second hand" imports
myself ;-)

Otherwise it's 5-15% import duty, plus 17.5% VAT on the total (here
in the UK anyway). Plus a few euros/pounds handling charge for the
courier for collecting the duty.

Duty on optical equipment in the EU is about 6-7%, although what you'd
end up paying of course depends on how customs decide to classify the
specific product. VAT here (the Netherlands) is even worse at 19%!

Don't you have import duty in the US?

They do, and 'state' taxes, but the levels are generally low compared to
the EU...

Best Wishes